Syracuse, NY -- Patrons of the Onondaga County Central Library will see reduced hours and services come Jan. 4.

Budget cuts from the county and the state forced the library to make cuts, too, Executive Director Elizabeth Dailey said. The library eliminated five positions, although no one will lose a job, she said. Three of the positions are vacant and the people in the other two jobs were moved to vacant positions in branch libraries, Dailey said.

The library hated to make the cuts, she said. Its budget was reduced 7.7 percent, she said. “I think they are in proportion to the resources that we lost and that we have tried to match up the greatest needs with the resources that we have,” Dailey said.

The full library will be now open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The big change is that the library will close the third, fourth and fifth floors of the library from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Those floors include the library’s main book collection, public access computers, children’s section, media, adult literacy services and local history.

The “Browse About” section on the main floor will still be open during those hours. Six computers with 15-minute internet access will be available. Librarians will be able to retrieve specific items for patrons from the third- and fourth floors, Dailey said. The library’s evening hours will be cut back by one hour. The library will be open from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, instead of until 8:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be inconvenience for people to have to adjust when they come to the library, and we understand that,” Dailey said. “And people are interested in how they can help us, and the best way really is to let me know what they couldn’t do that they needed to do because I’m very interested in the story from the community of how they use our library because pretty soon we’ll be building the 2011 budget.”

The library’s full time staff will be reduced from 60 to 55. Its budget will decrease by 7.7 percent or by $556,148 in 2010, Dailey said. The new budget is about $6.66 million. The cuts include an 11 percent or $61,721 cut in money to buy materials. In 2010, the library will receive $4.4 million from the county, and $1.15 million from the state, plus $1.1 million in grants and other revenues, Dailey said.